Transcript for Laird Hamilton On: Flow State, Mastering Fear & Being in the Now

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I’m good maybe I should just stop now but then your ego or something gets in the way and then you continue on and then you’re like you know whack and then. you’re like oh that broke my collarbone or oh I broke my leg or that’s where we shine is when we’re humble and we’re realistic about our position in the.

universe but the simplest way to word it really is be in the now so if there’s no beginning and no end then there’s just the now I’m participating me that the. dust me the the insignificant is actually participating in riding energy I mean it’s pretty pretty fantastic.

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what’s up guys Xavier katana here and wow what an episode with legendary big-wave surfer Laird Hamilton just a information-packed episode about being in high-performance states and we get. into flow state get into performance get into supplements and just how to keep your body in this rhythm of being able to achieve these amazing states so. everything that you want to know from someone who has been in those states thousands of times so who you guys enjoy this one thank you guys so much for the.

human experiences in session my guest for today’s mr. Laird Hamilton Laird my good sir it’s an honor welcome to the human experience well I just want to say thank you very. much for having me and it’s my honor so Laird I mean you you made such a a wide-ranging impact on the world of surfing and you know I’ve studied your.

career and I know who you are but for anyone who might not know who you are can you just give us a short biography please well I am uh Laird Hamilton and I was a. poor young man in Hawaii rough life I’m considered to be a Waterman which this means that you are multi skilled in disciplines of the ocean and of the.

water and you have an understanding of of its workings and I you know was raised in Hawaii I had some of the most rugged dirt breaks in the world and all. the people that I looked up to were were great Waterman fisherman divers and surfers and you know and the greatest of these and the ones that I had the most.

respect for were the men that rode the giant waves and and so that that impact on my life made me become a rider of giant waves and always in pursuit of. riding giant waves in through that process I’ve been involved with windsurfing and qaida and kind of been involved in the innovation of kiting of foil surfing of stand-up paddling of a.

technique called tow-in surfing which allows us to ride some of the biggest waves in the world and the list keeps going yeah it’s it’s really profound. this connection that you’ve made with the ocean it’s not a sense of control because you’re not controlling the waves. when did you find out that surfing was going to be this huge thing for you well I I think I had the fortune to kind of know when I was very young that I was?

gonna do something in surfing or surfing was gonna do something in me but there was just you know this connection that I had with his art in this element so it. started very young I take 3 or 4 years old you know I mean I think I was a obnoxious as a young man just I would run around and first of all I tell.

everybody who my stepdad was he was a you know a great surfer and and and then I would say I was gonna be great and they would just be like hey would you. just please shut up yeah you know you you talk about your own philosophy regarding fear how do you move through that how do you move through this sense.

of fear when you have this 200 foot wave coming at you well I think the relationship that I have with fear and what fear has enabled me to do has come over a long period of. time I think I’ve developed a relationship with beer I think I’m growing up I think it was scared so often that I became pretty versed at being scared and.

through that I think it gave me an ability to learn how to harness it I think you know that fear as an energy source is a very powerful thing and so. the when you have the ability to use fear as energy it makes you strong it makes you fast it makes you make really good decisions it’s it’s it’s something.

to respect and appreciate and so you know again I think I’ve developed a relationship with beer I’ve learned how to harness it and use it as a as an. energy source and na it’s brought me incredible rewards so I just want to feel this with you because when you’re approaching a wave of that size or you’re assessing. you know where you’re going to enter and how you’re gonna logistically plan riding this wave I mean what’s going through your mind when you do that it’s a pretty methodical process it’s.

something that you first of all you’re pulling from years and years and years of experience you know you’re pulling from 30 40 50 thousand hours of experience you’re using all of that data. to help you make the right approach make the right plan you know the one thing about the ocean and waves that you kind of always on guard is that there’s never.

two moments that are the same and I think that my respect in my fear for these beasts that respect and that fear forces me into a very consistent. approach yet with always the preparation that stuff happens and so I always say there’s only three ways you can go about doing anything that’s real dangerous and. you know one of them is denial and one of those ignorant and the other one is operating within your experience and most of the time it’s kind of some kind.

of combination of all three of those so you come in kind of experience you have a little bit of denial and and a little bit of ignorance or you know however. it’s gonna be but I approach this rule mathematically and then I use instinct the guide you know I use instinct as it as a guide when you know when something.

does isn’t right go with that heal that use that skill that we’ve developed you know survive yeah so you mean that that? when you feel something wrong you kind of eject out of that you’re just you follow that feeling absolutely yeah well or I go in too high okay so I all go into a high caution? mode like hey you know what I’m a little thumbs up I’ll go into high caution and that served me well and so I hate those those warnings has there been a time.

where you’ve been in that situation and maybe you didn’t follow that instinct maybe we didn’t follow that little warning and you were in a situation? where it got dangerous well yeah more than once usually it results I’m sort of injury so I mean you just got to go hey you know what I’m? good maybe I should just stop now but then your ego or something gets in the way and then you continue on and then you’re like you know whack and then.

you’re like oh that broke my collarbone or oh I broke my leg or you know and you but yet if you would have defeated those eternal warnings sooner you wouldn’t you. wouldn’t have you know the unconscious mind moves at 32,000 times the speed of the conscious mind which which technically means that it didn’t almost you know kind of see the future and so.

in a way you know those instincts and those feelings come from the unconscious you can develop a relationship with your conscious mind when you heed those warnings in those little days of boons. or whatever you want to call them they come up and crossed over that blank you know that’s that where you’re able to start to kind of create a better.

connection between that unconscious warning system survival system that moves it such a higher rate has the slower you know cognitive conscious mind yeah that’s very profound I really like. that a lot you know I’m sure you are aware of what flow state is right being in flow you know is there a process that you use I. mean when you’re in the middle of a pipe and you’re just you’re riding that wave what’s happening with time and does time slow down does it speed up do you feel.

like you have more time just everything kind of move in slow motion how does that work well there’s an expansion of time that occurs when you’re in that moment I mean. you know I describe sometimes the act of riding a wave as a place where there is no beginning and there is no end it just is and you. leave off where you left off and you start where you you know you left off I think that there’s something about that that keeps us coming back for more that.

we really desire that state the simplest way to word it really is be in the now so if there’s no beginning and no end then there’s just the now so if the. riding a wave is actually being in the now yet you’re in movement it’s something very special this is something you know very unique about that sensation that really keeps us coming.

back for more I mean we you know design our lives around this this desire for this state yes yes definitely there’s just large aspect of surrender remember looking at these images of you. on these these massive just walls of water and you’re just this tiny little human being and it almost looks like you’re making these brushstrokes you know on this this canvas that that is.

the ocean the surrender play into this just letting go of your ego letting go of those things well it’s all about submission it’s all about the render it’s all about being at. the mercy and it’s really it’s when we are at our best right we’re at our best when we are humble and proper perspective of what we really are which.

is dust in the wind at the end of the day that’s where we shine is when we’re humble and we’re realistic about our position in the universe where a? particle and a very small part and so and when you come from that and you go okay I’m humble I’m submitting and then you’re able to be in this less humble.

more significant situation that’s where the experience comes in that’s the whole sensation is like I’m participating me that the dust me the the insignificant. is actually participating in riding energy I mean it’s pretty pretty fantastic yeah I would say so um yeah that’s such a beautiful way to put it into perspective and just um you know I? feel like we walk around a lot with our egos kind of at the front of what we’re doing and when you’re in a position like that you get humbled very quick so it’s.

it’s difficult to not be in this sort of humble state forces you to be in this humble state when you’re facing this this force of nature coming at you you. created extreme performance training you co-created this can you tell us a bit about you know what xbt is and how it works well expertise is a really a. experiencial opportunity for people to participate in our lifestyle but also be exposed to some information that has that impact on our lives and some fitness technique and nutrition and.

breathing and thermal regulation and some of these things that have had a profound effect on us you know we have experts people can come for two-and-a-half experience and kind of. get a high impact version of our lifestyle like where they get to come and you know and and take some stuff home with them that can have an impact.

on the way they live how they live you know and what they live for and so on and so it’s a it’s a way for us to share. some of the information that has been shared with us you know it has a profound effect that I mean every one of these xpg experiences that we’ve had. people walk away change and it has that same impact on us and so we really enjoy putting them on and every time we put on one it seems like we we we gain a few.

friends I don’t know if we’re gonna continue to be able to do that but you know we can never have too many friends and it’s just great to see people being. open and willing it has a tendency to pull a really unique group of people that are really open and interested in in continuing to evolve as we are. breathing is a big part of x.p team right which way are we using breathing consciously to achieve this high-performance state we’re first of all we’re just giving.

breathing the credence or the respect that it deserves on the priority of existence you know you can live for you know few weeks without eating you can. live for a few days without drinking water and you can only live a few minutes without breathing so within that state then where does breathing Falls it. seems like it Falls is probably the most important thing that we do and then there’s a relationship you know with the spirit and the breath you know there’s indigenous tribes that.

about the spirit of life the breath is the spirit of life it’s about bringing consciousness the breath now as far as the experience goes I mean we’re gonna do a bunch of. different activities and they’ll be a multiple opportunities to do some breathing techniques a the people will be able to implement into their own lives into their fitness ultimately the.

great thing about XP is that it continues to evolve so there’s no set format we know it’s not like we go hey this is calisthenics and this is what. you do and this is how you do it and then it’s gonna be you know if you’ve been to one class you’ve been to a mall this is something that’s always evolving.

and it’s going to continue to evolve as we learn and and we’re all which hopefully is indefinitely yeah very interesting um hilarity I really want to talk about some of your. personal battles and you know not on the ocean we all have demons we all have that that sort of Dark Passenger I mean it has there been something like that in.

your life that you’ve had to sort of conquer and defeat there’s a battle of the bowl everyday I think that in life you know there’s a South Pole the North Pole you know we’re. like a battery there’s a negative and the positive and you know what dominates the majority of your thinking and the majority of your time spent doing now is.

it in the negative as a positive as long as the positive is more profound or having a bigger impact than negative you’re all good you know I’ve been sober. for ten years I I used to love the drink you know a good Bordeaux I love red wine at a certain point I just thought you know nothing’s good it’s coming from.

this you know and when we say all the dumbest things never did when I was drinking so I’m no better or no different than any other person I have. all the desires that all people do and I choose to go the direction I go and those choices happen to be but on the majority of the side positive and so you.

know I’ve had family stuff growing up I’ve had relations stuff being grown up and I’ve had injury stuff and I must say that I’ve been through all the trials. and tribulations that human can go through because I haven’t and I’ve been blessed and saved from a lot of a lot of grief but I have you know been through. enough stuff to have had an opportunity to decide what way I wanted to go and I’m fortunate to be able to say that I try to continue to always choose the.

light you know use the light keep focusing on the light and what you occupy your time with and what you choose will be the thing that dominates. so if you’re negative and it’s all dark and don’t be surprised you know a lot of darkness is around you and if you’re positive and you’re choosing the light. and that will be surprised if a lot of lights happening you know there’s certain laws in the universe and and I’m fortunate to know this thing called Instant Karma where.

usually when I think something bad or do something bad I pay instantly and has a tendency to make you learn quicker or maybe not but you know I choose to take. those as lessons and try to make changes yeah 100% agreed with that especially regarding just alcohol I personally I quit myself and you know that’s that’s such a. big change this once we start to realize that alcohol is just a poison for the body I mean it once you move away from it for a while you realized how negative.

it is for you there was this there was an interview that you did this article where you shared your 10-point plan to live forever you know was there one of. those ten points that kind of struck you the most there’s one where you talk about you know forget how old you are taking care of everyday priorities is. there one of those that kind of resonates more than the others I think to retain your youthful enthusiasm I think that you know that the key to the Fountain of Youth is to.

be a git and to be excited to be enthusiastic I think as soon as you lose that you’re dead anyway so I mean have a certain point if you want to be alive. while you’re alive then be alive and be excited and be enthusiastic it doesn’t mean every second don’t be like mister hey smiley guy I just meant find things.

that make you excited be a kid and be willing to learn and try new stuff and don’t care what people think of you and I mean I think that really I mean listen. you got to eat good you gotta have good relationships got to work out you gotta be it’s an endless list right it’s not anyone’s poke that makes the wheel round.

it’s all of them right so but but you said hey you know what’s one of the dominant spokes you know what’s the hub you know I mean it says it in the good. book its retain your youthful enthusiasm and via all the older guys that I know that are young they’re all enthusiastic excited you know they’re retaining it you said something interesting about.

choose in this in this conversation that you’re having or this article that was published you grew up barefoot in Hawaii right first of all we couldn’t afford shoes. you didn’t want how fuze on in Hawaii anyway have to tell my loss all my dues you know I mean when we did wear shoes they’re only slippers or thongs or. whatever we want to call them but they weren’t exactly a shoe all the studies are like hey we should all be barefoot and something about you know barefoot.

definitely connects you to the earth and you absorb negative ions through being barefoot and I mean you know our feet. were designed to be you know pretty much other than maybe a moccasin or something to keep your feet warm if you lived in the snow or something but you know your? feet are you know it’s a way to touch it’s how we touch and so in a way if you you know if you’re always insulated you know how smooth is skin when you have a.

blow on oh it’s not that smooth that’s alert I mean what is evolved for you what does change for you I mean are you more patient when you’re surfing are. you more patient with it and does that relate back to your own personal life it’s almost as if surfing is a type of philosophy and it teaches you so much.

about life well I mean first of all all the real lessons I’ve learned the ocean stop I went to the school of ocean and there you learn you know the fundamentals of. life you learn humility and discipline and perseverance and you fear I mean you learn you want to talk about all the things you learn and all the important.

things you learned they all you know and every great thing I’ve ever been gifted to me has come from the ocean and whether it’s things I’ve done the ocean. that have you know gotten the gifts bestowed upon me or things I’ve learned from the ocean that has allowed me to be able to receive the things that I’ve. been gifted I mean it Cisco it doesn’t end but I think you know I I don’t consider myself a very patient person but you know I had a writer once tell me.

he goes you know you know I realize it surfers are some of the most patient people in the world I just about fell out of my chair I was like you obviously. but he said you know but you guys are willing to wait a lifetime for a moment and I said olestra I mean and we are and we are genuinely willing to wait a.

lifetime for a moment I mean I would wait 50 years for an opportunity to to ride a certain kind of wave and I would prepare myself for 50 years to be able. to ride that wave and/or be there for that moment um and yeah I think my children at this point are teaching me the other side of patience which is with.

all of the small stuff and less selfishness and more selflessness I definitely feel like the more you can take your feelings of accomplishment or your successes out of the hands of. humans and put them in your own the more successful you’ll be in a more accomplished will be you know when you’re young and aggressive and Montenegro of yourself you have one out.

of two but then when you’re you know a little more seasoned in a little more experienced and a little more satisfied you have to change your approach and. what I’ve learned is that the more I can continue to control my feeling of success the more successful I’ll be if I have the ability to go out? into the ocean and do something that brings me a feeling of accomplishment and come back and then bringing that feeling of accomplishment back to my house um.

the better person I am the better husband I am the better boyfriend I am the better father I am a better person I am and so now I try to pursue that now I. spend a lot of time pursuing that ability and also to bring that feeling of success that I’ve I’m learning how to bestow upon myself yeah that’s such a.

profound statement to you know be able to bring that back what you’ve learned back into your everyday life because I mean if you’re this glory Surfrider and. you’re just kind of just riding these waves but everyone kind of thinks you’re an asshole I mean what’s the what would be the point of that right exactly you. know we say we have a sink I did away it’s not who you are it’s hyung ya know Melanie one of our listeners submitted this question she asks when and where.

was the best ride of your life just last week okay the best fried is the last ride that was a good ride no I mean you know listen? I’ve had so many phenomenal rides I mean one of the most famous rides that I’ve ever had was one in Tahiti when when I wrote a wave at the time that was said.

to be unraidable and impossible I’ve had incredible rides of my life at a famous wave called jaws on Maui there’s a famous stunt man that once said you know never let your memories be. bigger than your dreams so I don’t dwell on the past but I think I’ve had so many incredible ride in my lifetime it’s hard to say one was better than the other it.

was this maybe they’re just been all been equally great just different and there’s been too many to even count but I mean I definitely have had two? monumental moments you know at both in Maui and Tahiti but I did you know like I said literally I had a ride last week that was one of those special ones that. I did you know I think it’s about when you do something that you’ve never done I think each time you do that that’s a monumental want to so I know that wasn’t.

the short answer but that’s the only one I have and no worries you know there’s there’s such a large philosophy behind all this and one of the anecdotes that. I’ve heard about surfing is that when you start to panic like let’s say that you kind of eat a wave and you’re you just you crash out and you’re under the.

water if you panic in that moment you only have like 10 to 15 seconds of air but if you remain calm in that moment you have up to a minute of air or longer. as a better life yeah so I mean do you do you find that to be true and you have you found that to be accurate in your.

experience absolutely I mean I think because I was in so many heavy situations from such a young age for so many times you become very knowledgeable about the liability. of panic and that how panic will will undermine your ability to survive and so panicking is a liability and you learn that quick and there’s a time there’s a. time to go all out and you know and give it your all at the potential cost of thing you gain time by slowing down it’s just the irony of it you know then you.

think law if I speed up I’ll gain time but you gain time by slowing down and then actually there’s a strange phenomenon that occurs where when you. have heightened awareness that you actually can speed up assessment you know and that actually slows down time it gives you time else in the time expands because your assessment has sped. up and I describe it a little bit like making slow-motion film where they speak the camera speed the shutter speed up in order to create emotion well when you.

imagine assessment the shutter speed so the quicker you can see here listen to that thing and assess the more time that you’ll gain yeah yeah for sure you know. there there was an element of your career where you refused to compete professionally and yet you dominated the industry why did you refuse to do this in a professional standard. well the culmination of a couple of different reasons part of it was because when I grew up I was exposed to kind of the injustice of judgment and surfing.

and that surfing is really art and it’s to self-expression and I came from a generation at which surfing was still under more of an exploratory stage in. its development it hadn’t been really corporatized it hadn’t been boxed up yet and they didn’t have a you know the whole focus wasn’t on the tour and that. whole thing and it was more like art my stepdad was a phenomenal surfer I watched him go through some role of trials and tribulations with participating in the structured.

competitions and I watched his fate be determined by other people that were probably not nearly as good a surfer as he was but yet there were the so-called. experts and I decided at a young age that I wouldn’t subject my performances to those people and you know I played around when I was little in surfing. competitions because it was fun it was with the friends you want some some toys or whatever candy whatever couple t-shirts or something some fun there was.

it and then when money came along and the whole thing changed it kind of had a tendency to make me aggressive which I think I was already naturally too. aggressive I didn’t need a reason to be more aggressive for me I think that aggression was distraction from actually surfing you know I told somebody yeah I. think the reason why I never competed it was because I’m too competitive I always thought I’ll go my route which.

is if I’m the best surfer in the biggest and heaviest conditions and that kind of pretty much takes care of itself I don’t need to have anybody determine whether? I’m great or not if I think if I’m doing things no one else is doing or performing in a way in the in what I consider the heaviest conditions then. kinda puts me on my own platform and ultimately people will how do you do that you know you’re a basketball player but somehow you’re not playing in the.

NBA and I just explained it normally you know an athlete is sponsored or they get aid because they’re getting exposure on they’re on TV every night they’re you. know so the they get paid because they get seen and so but I because of the nature of the things that I was able to do and have. done did that got me a lot of exposure so I just kind of bypassed the middle part which is I didn’t need a platform I.

was to go directly to the the exposure side which led to sponsorships and other things like that I always say I you know I hate to be told what to do I don’t? want to be told when to go in the water and when to come in I want to feel it go. when I want to perform how I want to then I think with that format it allowed me to maybe do things and perform in a way that was much more true to myself?

and and at the end really allowed me to go to higher levels of performance and maybe much higher than I would have ever ever been able to have I been in a. competitive environment hey guys you have been listening to a human experience and our episode with mr. Laird Hamilton to listen to the rest of this episode get to the human XP m burs you can go there and you’ll have access to the full library of content that we.

have for our members only and you can hear the rest of this interview with Larry where he talks about his own personal routine and his own personal. dealings with you know his everyday and it’s really important to get that you help support what we’re doing here and this way we don’t have to deal with. you know sponsors and stuff so become a member the human EXPEED comm slash members thank you so much for listening.

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